Grade 3-8 test scores 'flat' in Hampton

Friday

Feb 14, 2014 at 2:00 AM

HAMPTON — Results are in for the Hampton School District's grade 3 through 8 standardized tests, and Superintendent Kathleen Murphy said she's disappointed to see progress flatten out after an upward trend.

Nick B. Reid

HAMPTON — Results are in for the Hampton School District's grade 3 through 8 standardized tests, and Superintendent Kathleen Murphy said she's disappointed to see progress flatten out after an upward trend.

In presentations to the School Board Tuesday, Murphy and the school principals agreed that across the board the results, though higher than state averages, didn't live up to the district's expectations.

"The last several years we've really been moving forward and this year we just kind of were flat," Murphy said.

An early analysis of the results left Centre School Principal Tim Lannan, Marston School Principal Lois Costa and Hampton Academy Principal David O'Connor with one explanation. For years, the schools have been shifting their focus toward what will be the new nationwide testing standard, Common Core. This being the final year the students will take the New England Common Assessment Program tests, O'Connor said curriculum-wise he had "one foot in the Common Core and one in NECAP."

Murphy said she felt the results were "across the board good with reading," as 92 percent of eighth-graders were proficient or highly proficient, compared to 84 percent when that group was in third grade, though the progress slowed this year.

But, she said, "Math is the one place that we really haven't made the progress that we thought we (would)." In that same class, 73 percent of third-graders five years ago were proficient or highly proficient. As eighth-graders, 74 percent of the class was proficient.

"We haven't grown," Murphy said. But on the other hand, incoming classes of third-graders have performed better in recent years — scoring in the mid-80s percent proficiency — than that 2008 class that scored 73 percent proficient.

In writing, Murphy said the scores "slid" after years of making "really great headway."

Lannan praised his young students' reading abilities, saying that his students are outperforming the state average more and more each year. He said he's focusing on more advanced reading analysis and interpretation skills with his elementary-age students that will be beneficial when it comes to the Common Core testing. He also noted that his students' progress is outpacing the state's in the more advanced geometry and measurement section of the math testing, showing that students are mastering at an early age concepts that will be built upon in coming years.

"At Centre School, we feel we're really strongly preparing for the next test and the next challenge," he said.

Lannan's students leave his second-grade classes for Marston School, where they take the NECAP test early in the year as third-graders.

Costa, who is the principal of the older elementary-age students, said the results caused her to pause, reflect and consider how her school could receive the accolades it has over the past year, while also stalling a bit in its test progress.

"Things can change on the turn of a dime, as we know," she said.

Costa said the difference between the outgoing curriculum and the future with Common Core is a 20 to 50 percent change, with shifts in what's being taught, when it's being taught and how.

"We were straddling both curriculums, if you will," she said. "I'm pleased that we did as well as we did."

O'Connor said that when he examined his seventh- and eighth-graders' scores, "We were pretty disappointed in the ways the scores came back."

But when he dug deeper, he saw that the numbers weren't as bad as they seemed on the surface. NECAP places students into one of four levels of proficiency based on the number of questions they answer correctly. When he looked at the 33 students that placed in one of the lower two brackets, he said 14 students in level 2 were one question away from scoring in level 3, which is considered proficient. He said he saw the same thing in math, where 43 students landed in level 2. Fourteen of them scored a 39, meaning if they got one more question right, it would have "significantly changed" the way the results look, O'Connor said.

He also noted that the writing prompt given to students was "very different" compared to last year.

"The students did a pretty good job, but it was a very challenging piece of reading and then writing. I think that's why we saw a dip there," he said.

O'Connor noted that the NECAP testing for eighth-graders takes place over three weeks, during which time the students undergo eight different two-hour tests.

"After they do something a few days in a row, (they say), 'This gets old to me and I'm not liking this anymore'," he said.

O'Connor said he implemented various incentives, break times, raffles and "fun at lunch" program this year in an effort to keep the students more interested.

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